ANALOGY 



OF 



Science, Physical and Metaphysical, 



•IV 



NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION. 



LOUIS MACKALL, M. D 




M GILL & WITHEKOW, PRINTERS, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1876. 



'Ms 



Entered according to act of Coni;resH, in the year 1S7!>, 
By LOUIS IMACKALL, M. D., 

in the OOice of the Librai-iaii of Congress at Wasliin.L';toM. 



PREFACE. 



The new formula of the Reasoning Pro- 
cess suggested in American Science, and 
adopted in this Treatise, is calculated to 
change radically and most essentially the 
whole of human knowledge, religious and 
secular. The religious knowledge we have, 
it must be admitted, is derived in great 
measure from the indulgence or free exer- 
cise of an unrestrained and unbridled im- 
agination. By keeping the imagination in 
subjection to an enlightened or cultivated 
conscience, this difficulty in religious knowl- 
edge is obviated ; and the necessity for in- 
troducing the subject of direct inspiration, 
which has always presented a difficulty to 
well-ordered minds, is done away Avith. 
The subject of miracles, or the temporary 
suspension of the operation of the Physical 
laws, which has been used to give authoritj^ 
to those resorting to miracles, is also done 
away with, since this authority is found in 
the endowment of the faculty of '' knowing 
(3) 



PREFACE. 



good and evil," that is, of the faculty of con- 
science, the exercise of which is the crown- 
ing act in reasoning. 

The Greek Philosophers, in initiating 
science, and in substituting this for their 
false religion, committed the same blunder, in 
accepting the suggestions of an unrestrained 
imagination as the true principles of science. 
In this way their science, which has descend- 
ed to our time, became deeply imbued with 
the fiiUacy of materialism, that has rendered 
this whole system of science irreconcilable 
to the dictates of an enlightened conscience, 
or, as it is usuall}' called in American Science, 
of a good, sound common-sense. 

Locke, in his celebrated essay on the 
"Human Understanding,^' as he was pleased 
to cull the human mind or soul, which essay 
has become a standard authority in British 
literature, committed numerous errors in his 
reasoning on this subject. His conceptions 
of human knowledge, and how it was ac- 
quired, of simple ideas and how formed, and 
of the nature of our com])lcx ideas, were all 
erroneous. The human mind, in gaining its 
ideas of surrounding objects, is never passive, 
as a mirror; but, in our waking hours, is 
busily emploj^od in determining its nerve- 
(luid or specitie life, through the nerves of 
the senses, to tho objects in its i^nvironmcnt, 



PREFACE- 5 

that it may form ideas of these objects and 
ma}' become aware of their nature. It ac- 
quires its simple ideas of such objects by the 
vital combination of the specific life deter- 
mined to, with the subtle fluid that is ever 
passing from, such objects. The mind is 
thus brought into relation with the material 
world by means of its specific life, that is in 
relation with both matter and mind; and the 
ideas thus formed, and nothing else, can be 
impressed on the memory so as to be after- 
wards recalled. Complex ideas are the re- 
sults of reasoning, that is brought into exer- 
cise, or is suggested by our simple ideas. It 
is from the exercise of the faculty of reason 
that all useful human knowledge is derived. 

'"What is Truth?' said Pontius Pilate, and 
turned away without awaiting an answer." 
To this simple question, no plain, definite 
YGp]y has ever been suggested. Although the 
inquiry admits of a satisfactory answer. Lord 
Bacon, who proposed it, came very wide of 
the mark; and Locke, the next highest au- 
thority, in answering it, was equally wide of 
the truth. His notion, that truth consists 
in an agreement of ideas, was a partial, and, 
as it stands, unintelligible answer. 

What is Truth ? Truth is the dictate of an 
enlightened conscience, or cultivated com- 
mon-sense. Conscience or common-sense is a 



b PREFACE. 

mental faculty implanted in every sane mind ; 
but is supposed to be more perlcct, or more 
fully developed in the human than in the brule 
mind. This facult}^ has received a variety 
of names in the English language, as, the 
knowledge of good and evil^ the moral sense^ 
the ride of right, the candle of the Lord 
within us, (be., and, when enh'ghtened and 
cultivated, enables us to behold the trutli as 
it is in the Divine Mind. This is, in short, 
the spark of Divinity that is imparted to His 
creatures. Had Locke been aware of this, 
and had he required his complex ideas, that 
is, the results of his reasonini»:. to aii:ree with 
the dictates of this faculty, as the standard 
of truth, he would have struck the nail upon 
the head; but the agreement of ideas among 
themselves, without any standard of truth, 
was but a foolish and useless maxim. 



ANALOGY OF SCIENCE TO RELIGION. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL PROPOSITIONS, OR, GENERAL PRIN- 
CIPLES OF SCIENCE. 

The great aim or grand result proj^osed 
in all human knowledge, religious and sec- 
ular, should be, a correct view, a true theory, 
of the economy of Nature, that has been 
aptly called ^^The Constitution and Course 
of Nature/' 

With this acquired, the Human Mind is 
prepared to accomplish fully the purposes 
for which it was created. Without this 
knowledge, the mind of man is ever grop- 
ing in the dark, and is constantly involved 
and ingulfed in the quagmires of supersti- 
tion and ignorance. 

(7) 



8 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

A number of views of this all-important 
subject have been submitted to human in- 
telligence, embraced for the most part in 
the religious books or systems of religion, 
adopted by the several nations of the earth ; 
but, more recently, a theory has been offered 
called '^ Science,'' professing to enter more 
fully aud more minutely into the explana- 
tion of the operations in Nature or in nat- 
ural phenomena. 

Of the religious books and systems of re- 
ligion, that which is adopted by what we 
commonly regard as the most intelligent 
and most civilized portion of humanity, is 
the Bible and the Christian Dispensation. 
These contain the most valuable truths of- 
fered to our consideration — truths that fur- 
nish a solid and permanent basis or foun- 
dation for all useful knowledge. Moses, 
the Theologian of the Old Testament, re- 
lates in the Book of Genesis, ' ' God said, Let 
there be light,'' and adds, ''and there was 
light." This reference, of the power and 
intellio-ence exhibited in conducting the 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 9 

Course of Nature, to Grocl its Founder, Law- 
giver, and Grovernor, is one of the most val- 
uable truths to which we have just alluded ; 
and St. John the Evangelist, the Theolo- 
gian of the New Testament, says, ''In the 
Beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God." 
Now, if we attach to the' term, Word, Lo- 
gos, the meaning Laws of Nature^ or the 
expression of the will of the Creator in 
words, what was an unintelligible jargon 
of terms becomes a most important truth 
that underlies, as it were, all really useful 
knowledge. The Laws of Nature, as en- 
acted by the Divine Law-giver, are the sec- 
ondary or proximate causes in all natural 
phenomena. In the received system of 
Science, which we shall in future call Eu- 
ropean Science^ these secondary or proxi- 
mate causes are referred to the imaginary, 
active, occult properties of matter^ and these 
forms of matter are looked to as the proxi- 
mate causes of phenomena^ as tJie potentials 
in nature ! This whole system of European 



10 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

Science is based or foimclecl on the doctrine 
of Materialism, that refers all the power 
and intelligence exhibited in nature to 
forms of matter — a position which, we shall 
show, is utterly false and untenable. We 
now propose to offer for consideration an 
entirely new system of science, to be called 
Ameyncan Science^ which we claim to be 
more rational than European Science, and 
more in accordance with the dictates of the 
conscience or common-sense of mankind. 

In the Christian dispensation, it is in- 
sisted on, that to observe, obey, and con- 
form to the will of God, as expressed in 
His laws or precepts, is the condition upon 
which the human Being or Soul is to enjoy 
endless happiness in a future state of exist- 
ence. In American Science it is shown 
that the same observance, obedience, and 
conformity to the will of God, as imparled 
in the laws of Nature, is the condition 
upon which all His creatures are to enjoy 
the happiness provided for them in this 
life; and thus the analogy, the sameness 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 11 

of law or rule, the sameness of principle 
in Science and Religion, is established, and 
shown to be lull and complete. 

AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

In the new system of American Science, 
the economy of nature is regarded as a form 
of government (the archetype or prototype 
of all human governments) having God 
for its Founder, Law-giver, and Grovernor. 
Under this government are two classes of 
Subjects, viz: inert, insensate, and inani- 
mate forms of matter, and constitutions of 
Mind or Soul. For the government of each 
class, a separate and distinct class or code 
of laws has been enacted. For the regu- 
lation of the motions and changes of form 
of inanimate bodies, of which aloneare these 
susceptible, the code denominated the Phys- 
ical laics ^ are appointed ; and to govern the 
conduct of living Beings in this life, the 
code called the Instincts have been enacted. 

It is a noticeable provision in the econ- 
omy of Nature, that all the power or phys- 



12 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

ical force exhibited in Nature is connected 
with, and is derived from, the operation of 
the Physical laios that actuate, or are the 
secondary causes of, the motions and changes 
of form of inanimate bodies of matter ; and 
that all the happiness enjoyed by living 
Beings is connected with and is derived 
from the operation oithe Instincts; so that 
if we would exert a force or power, we must 
first invoke it by providing tlie physical 
conditions necessary to bring into opera- 
tion some one or more of the physical laios ; 
and if we would promote the happiness of 
a living being, we must bring into opera- 
tion some one or more of its Instincts. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



The Physical laws, with the operation of 
which we have said all phj^sical force is 
connected, are, as far as they have been 
investigated, fourteen in number, as follow : 

At the same time that God said ^-Let 
there be light,'' or, at tlie Beginning of 
the World, God enacted the Physical laws, 
and said: 

1st. Let there he an interchange of the 

subtle fluid, life, among all the bodies of 

. matte?' that are in relation loith each other 

throughout the Universe, In obedience to 

this law^ there has been tliis interchange 

throughout nature. In the observance of 

this First Physical Law the Bodies of Space 

have continued their ceaseless motion in 

their orbits and on their axes^ and all other 

bodies of matter haveobserved the samelaw, 

as will be afterwards more iully sliown. 
(13) 



14 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

This is the physical law of Interchange of 
Life that has hitherto been overlooked by 
scientists.* 

2(1. Let oil ponderable bodies about the 
Earth's surface tend to move towards the 
center of the Earth. This is the true law 
of nature, which was so entirely misappre- 
hended and misrepresented by Sir Isaac 
Newton. Why do ponderable bodies tend 
to move in the above-mentioned direction 
rather than in any other? The answer is 
plain from what we have said, namely, be- 



^' A law, very similar to this, is embraced in the other 
code of the laws of nature, that is, in the Instincts. The 
Instincts of Humanity are happily, though partially 
expressed in the Decalogue, and the particular instinct 
of which we are treating was well expressed by our 
Saviour when He said "Thou shalt love tlie Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as 
thyself." To love, is to interchange life with the object 
loved, whether animate or inanimate, through the 
Emotional Faculties, or through the Affections; and 
the strength is always proportional to the quantity of 
the subtle fluid, the specific life, that is at the disposal 
of the Alind or Soul. The term, heart, is often used in 
Scripture figuratively, or as synonymous with that of 
mind or soul, or, rather, as the secret part or innermost 
recess of the soul, as the material heart is conceived to 
be the central or innermost part of the body. Liter- 
ally, the soul or mind has neither head nor heart — 
these being members alone of the material body. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 15 

cause oF the Law of Gravitation, (L. 2,) 
that was enacted at the Beginning of the 
World by a Being of infinite wisdom and 
power. The occult property of Gravity, 
conceived by Newton, was a mere myth, a 
fantastic phantasy of Sir Isaac's imagina- 
tion. There is no such property in any 
form of matter. 

It will facilitate our comprehension of 
other natural phenomena if we here show 
the operation of this law in the movements 
of the pendulum of a clock. The pendulum 
is pushed from its line of Gravity where it 
rested, by the hand, or rather, by applying 
to it the force from the physical law of Mus- 
cular Action (L. 12), and is moved in its 
arc to a distance directly proportionate to 
the force applied, Wiien this force is ex- 
hausted or nullified, the pendulum is car- 
ried back towards its line of Gravity by the 
force from the law of Gravitation, (L. 2;) 
but, having acquired this new impetus, it 
does not stop at this line, and is carried 
beyond it in its arc, until the new force is 



16 AMERICAN SCIENCE, 

exhausted, when it again returns, by means 
of the same force, towards its line of Grav- 
ity. This motion of the pendulum is re- 
peated as long as the force from the law of 
Gravitation is continued. 

3d. Let all iinponderable bodies tend to 
move toioards the outer circiimfereyice of the 
atmosioliere. As the most direct course to 
this part of the atmosphere is towards the 
zenitli, the impression became general that 
light or imponderable bodies naturally 
moved upward, and, no doubt, gave rise to 
the aphorism that '^the mind of man is 
prone to evil, as the sparks fly upwards.'' 

This is the physical law of Diffusion, that 
has more to do with the motion of the im- 
ponderables, as life, light, heat, electricity, 
sound, odors, &c., than scientists have sus- 
pected. 

4th. Let all adjacent bodies of matter 
tend to move to fill a vacuum. This is the 
physical law of Suction, that furnishes the 
principle on which all physiological phe- 
nomena take place. The motion of the 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 17 

air into the lungs, of the contents of the 
primas vi^, of those of the heart and blood- 
vesseLs &c., &c.^ all occur on the principle 
of suction, and not on that of propulsion, 
as heretofore supposed. The force acting 
on the Hemispheres, or Otto Gruericke's 
cups, is derived from the operation of this 
physical law, and not at all from atmos- 
pheric pressure^ as is erroneously thought. 
The force from this law, acting on the body 
or substance of the cups, and urging them 
towaiTls the vacuum ivitJmi, is the real 
motive power in this instance, and fur- 
nishes the resistance to their separation. 

5th» JVhen a current of any kind is pass- 
ing^ let the life of adjacent bodies of matter ^ 
animate or inanimate^ flow from them to 
sioell this curi'-ent. This—- the Law of the 
Life-current — is a new physical law, that 
had escaped the notice of scientists, but 
will be found useful in explaining many 
natural phenomena that, without a refer- 
ence to this law, are inexplicable. It may 

be used to throw much light on obscure 
2 



18 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

and unintelligible parts of the economy of 
Nature. This physical law is the great 
means employed in nature for tlie decom- 
position, and change of form, of material 
bodies. The life of bodies — spoken of as 
^Hhat mysterious principle of life' ' — seems 
to have the effect of keeping in place tlieir 
several constituents, and of thus preserv- 
ing their identity ; but when the life is 
withdrawn by virtue of this physical law, 
these constituents fall into confusion, and 
are then ready to enter into other combina- 
tions and give rise to other forms of matter. 
6 th. Let ponderahle fluids J or liquids^ tend 
to move toioards the spherical outline of the 
earthy or to the surface of oceans and lakes ^ 
ivhich, when calm, constitute in part thi^ 
spherical outline, and is in fact the true 
Water-level. This physical law, which 
we call the Law of the Water-level, has not 
been properly understood by scientists, who 
have erroneously referred its phenomena, 
or the results of its operation, to the Law 
of Gi'avitation. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 19 

7tb. Let the atoms or molecules of elastic 
bodies tend to preserve their natural relative 
position. The raotiou of the particles of 
matter in elastic bodies is caused by this 
physical law. 

8th. Let the molecules of crustalline hod. 
ies, ichen uniting, he arranged in regular 
specific forms or crystals. Every crystal- 
line body or kind has from nature a model 
on which its crystals are formed. Hauy 
observed this fact, but failed to account 
for it, or to furnish its true explanation. 

9th. Let the constituents of inanimate 
forms of matter he condjined in certain defi- 
nite proportions, by virtue of this Law of 
Chemical Comhination. 

10th. Let material bodies , or their mole- 
cules, unite to form distinct masses, or larger 
bodies of matter. Tliis Law of Cohesion is 
the principal means employed in nature^, 
to counteract or annul the force or forces 
of other physical laws, as occasions require, 
as we shall presently more fully explain. 

11th. Let the specific life of animants 



20 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

unite loith the materials of their ingesta, to 
form the fluids and tissues of living or ani- 
mate bodies. This Law of Vital Combina- 
tion is tlie secondary cause of the formation 
of organized tissues, which chemists have 
in vain attempted to imitate. They have 
lailed to command the use of this specif c 
life^ that is the main constituent in these 
combinations. 

12th. Let tJw living muscular f be r, lohen 
innervated, be actively elongated and erected; 
and, ivhen enervated, let it be contracted. 
This Law of Muscular Action, as we call it, 
has lieretofore been entirely misunderstood 
and misrepresented by Physiologists. The 
reverse of the proposition they have laid 
down on this subject is true. The action or 
active state of a muscle is a state of the 
active elongation of its fibers, and 7iot of 
contraction of these fibers, as is erroneously 
conceived. 

loth. Let certain forms of matter adhere 
to each other, as paint to wood, putty to 
glass and wood, &c. This is the physical 
Law of Adhesion. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 21 

14tli. In the highest orders of both the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms let a proper 
union of the tioo sexes he attended loith the 
formation of a neiv being ; and in some of 
the loioer orders of these kingdoms^ let a 
production of a ganglion or nerve-center be 
folloiced by a like result. This we call The 
Law oi Animate Generation. 

SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES CONNECTED WITH THE 
OPERATION OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS. 

It will perhaps be profitable, as condu- 
cive to clearness of thought, to stop here 
to point out the distinction, the line of 
demarkation, between two terms that are 
commonly confounded with each other in 
scientific creatises. I allude to the terms 
Scientific Frinciples and Laws of Nature. 
The most essential distinction between 
these terms is this : scientific principles are 
the productions, the generalizations of the 
human mind, arrived at by the exercise of 
human reason ; while the laws of nature 
are the productions, the enactments of the 



22 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

Divine Mind, designed to conduct the course 
of nature. 

The scientific principles, connected with 
the operation of the physical laws, to which 
I here wish to call attention, are these : 

1st. The physical laws in their opera- 
tion are, at times adjuvant, or assisting 
each other in accomplishing a result ; and, 
at other times, are antagonistic, or have 
their forces opposed to each other. 

In the perpendicular fall of flowing water 
into the buckets of the large water-wheel, 
the force of the Law of Gravitation (L. 2.) 
(water being a ponderable body) assists, 
or is added to, the force of the Law of the 
Water-level, (L. 6,) and both forces serve 
to accomplish the result— the motion of the 
wheel. Again, when a heavy, ponderable 
body falls to the ground, or to tlie surface 
of the earth, its motion is arrested by the 
antagonism of the physical Law of Cohesion 
(L. 10) acting on the molecules of the 
earth, which force that of the Law of 
Gravitation cannot overcome. The force 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 23 

of the Law of Cohesion, (L. 10,) acting on 
the earth, is liere greater than that of any 
other pliysical law, because, 

2d. The force of a physical law is always 
in a direct ratio with the quantity of mat- 
ter influenced by the law at the time ; and 
hence, the earth being the largest body of 
matter with which we are immediately con- 
cerned, it follows, from the tw^o scientific 
23rinciples just cited, that, 1st. The velocity 
of motion derived from a physical law is in- 
versely as the resistance encountered from 
the force of some other law or laws ; and, 
2d . That the velocity of a falling body is in- 
creased with the continuance of motion, by 
having added to the force of the law caus- 
ing the motion, that of the Law of Suction, 
(L. 4,) brought into operation by means 
of the vacuum formed by the displacement 
of the body that is moving. From these 
considerations we learn that Gallileo's ex- 
periment at the tower of Pisa W' as not con- 
clusive, and served to decide the question 
raised wrongfully. The greater resistance 



24 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

in the air to the motion of the larger body, 
and the increase of force in falling, from 
the Law of Suction, were not considered. 
The force with which the heavier body 
moved was undoubtedly greater than that 
of the lighter body, and this was what the 
followers of Aristotle based their opinion 
on ; but the velocity of the two falling bod • 
ies was influenced by the circumstances 
stated above that were not taken into con- 
sideration. 

Tlie mechanic, with a knowledge of the 
plain and simple truths imparted above, 
can proceed intelligibly to the exertion of 
the power in nature-the only powei- or 
force he can by any means command. 
There is no power in light, lieat, electricity, 
steam, nor in any other form of matter ; 
but this attribute of God is " reserved with- 
in His own curtain," and is delegated by 
Him only to a code of His laws-the phys- 
ical laws— for their execution. The Me- 
chanic should fully realize the truth of the 
Christian religion that "of himself he 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 25 

can do notliing/' but is depeDuent on the 
iavor of God for his must trifling acts. He 
cannot raise his hand to his head, or per- 
form any movement of his body, without 
first having recourse to a physical law — 
the Law of Muscular Action, (L. 12,) by 
means of wliich law alone, can this move- 
Uient be effected, and which is the sole 
secondary cause of this motion. In enter- 
ing upon the exertion of force, or the con- 
struction of a machine for this purpose, the 
intelligent mechanic should first determine 
what force, or the force from which of the 
fourteen physical laws he proposes to em- 
ploy, and then, by providing the physical 
conditions necessary to bring into operation 
this law, he has at his command the force 
he is about to make use of, and can modify 
this force in accordance with the scientific 
principles mentioned above. He determ- 
ines, for instance, to employ the force from 
the Law of Gravitation (L. 2 ) in the use 
of tlie trip-hammer^ and lie raises this pon- 
derable body, the hammer, to a position 



26 AMERICAN SCIEXCE. 

whence it can have a free motion towards 
the center of the earth ; and, when it foils, 
he has at his command the force connected 
with the operation of this Law. He can 
modify this force by regulating the vv eight 
of the hammer, and the distance it is suf- 
fered to fall, according to the object or pur- 
pose he has in view. Should he determine 
to employ the force from tlie Law of Dif- 
fusion, (L. 3,) he prepares steam, or some 
imponderable, diffusible body; if from the 
Law of Suction, (L. 4, ) he has only to pre- 
pare a vacuum; and if from the Law of 
Elasticity, (L. 7,) an elastic body, as a bow 
or steel spring, and so on ; and he can 
modify or regulate any of the forces, sim- 
ply by regulating the quantity of matter 
to be influenced by the law, and the dis- 
tance it is to be allowed to move. 

OTHER FORCES ENTIRELY IMAGINARY. 

The Mathematics, or the Science of 
Equations, has been of great service to 
mankind; but the mathematicians have, 



PHYSICAL SCIENCK, 27 

by the weight of authority, led scientists 
into many errors and absurdities. AVe 
have said there are in nature but fourteen 
forces or powers ; but niatliematicians have 
added to these, other imaginary powers, 
as, vis inei'tiae, the power of friction, &c. 
When a heavy, ponderable body, as a load- 
ed wagon, rests on the ground, it requires 
some extra force to start it into motion. 
This extra force, causing resistance to its 
motion, is referred to the ponderable body 
itself, and is called its vis inertice. The 
phenomenon is much more rationally ex- 
plained on the principle stated above, 
namely, in nature the forces from the 
physical laws are, at times, adjuvant, and 
at other times antagonistic to each other. 
In the instance before us, the force from 
the first Law of Nature (L. 1) is added 
to the force from the Law of Gravitation, 
(L. 2,) and this extra force of (L. 1) must 
be overcome before the motion of the loaded 
wagon can be induced, and so on. The 
scientific principle is true, and serves to 



28 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

explain all the phenomena. The same 
may be said oHlie force of friction^ where- 
in the force from (L. 1) is in operation, 
and causes the remora, or suspension of 
motion in machinery. On rough surfaces, 
where the interchange of life is greatest, 
(for life is interchanged through points or 
projections,) the remora is greater than on 
smooth surfaces. 



CHAPTER III. 

APPLICATION OF THE FORCES DERIVED FROM 
THE OPERATION OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS TO 
SOME OF THE PURPOSES OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. 

Ist. Let there he an intercJiange of the 
subtle fluid, life^ among all the bodies of mat- 
ter that are in relation luith each other 
throughout the universe. By virtue or by 
means of this pliysical law, ideas of ex- 
ternal material objects are formed and 
conveyed to the mind. There are two 
kinds of life in nature — the one of inani- 
mate bodies, that may be called the life of 
composition^ and the other of animate bod- 
ies, called specific life. By the vital com- 
bination of the specific life with the life of 
composition, that by means of a physical 
law (L. 3) is ever passing among material 
bodies, ideas of such bodies are formed and 
conveyed to the mind that observes them. 

This is the Theory of Perception adopted 
"(29) 



30 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

in American Science; and the vast utility 
of tliis physical law in accomplishing this 
principal purpose of human existence is 
thus shown. Other important purposes are 
attained through this law, as chemical 
combinations, &g., which we will not stop 
here to enumerate. 

2d. Let all ponderable bodies about the 
earth's surface tend to move toivards the 
center of the earth. A valuable purpose 
is accomplished in the use of the trip-ham- 
mer, which use will serve to illustrate the 
mode in which the force from the operation 
of this physical law is utilized. The trip- 
hammer is usually composed of some heavy 
metal, as iron or lead, that is raised to a 
proper height by machinery and then let 
fall, in order to obtain the force of gravi- 
tation, or to command the force connected 
with the operation of this physical law. 
This force may be modified or regulated on 
the principle presented above, (p. 15,) by 
reducing or increasing the weight of the 
hammer, or the distance it has to fall. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 31 

3(1. Let all imponderable bodies of matter 
tend to move toioards 'the outer circumference 
of the atmosphere. This physical law is 
utilized by mankind in the use of the steam- 
engine, &c. Steam being among the most 
diftusible bodies known to scientists, has 
been utilized in this way : A strong cylinder 
is prepared in which a piston is made to work 
air-tight. By applying steam, with its 
great tendency to diffusion, at one end of 
the cylinder, the piston is forcibly driven 
towards its other end, and the force of this 
physical law is exhibited. This force being 
then connected with and applied by ma- 
chinery, constitutes the steam engine, Im- 
jjonderable bodies of matter also tend to 
be merged into and to become latent con- 
stituents of other forms of matter, and 
consequently their identity is often lost 
before reaching their natural destination — 
the outer circumference of the atmosphere 
—as is seen when the smoke from a steam 
boiler is dissolved in air. This force is in- 
creased in the low- pressure engine by adding 



32 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

to it that from tlie physical Law of Suction 
(L. 4) simply by establishing a vacuum in 
the cylinder in advance of the piston. The 
shortest and most direct route to the outer 
circumference of the atmosphere is in the 
line towards the zenith ; and this has 
given rise to the comoaon belief that light 
or imponderable bodies naturally fly up- 
wards. 

4th. Let all adjacent forms or bodies of 
matter tend to move to fill a vacmtm. AVhcm 
the operation of this physical law is fully 
nnderstood, it is found that there is not 
tlie slightest occasion for the absurd notion 
of atmospheric pressure to explain the [)he- 
nomena commonly referred to this false 
principle. In the barometer, for instance, 
the force by which the column of mercury 
is sustained in the tube is derived from this 
law, brought into operation by means of 
the Torricellian vacuum at the top of the 
tube, and is not at all influenced by the 
pressure of the atmosphere on tlie basin of 
mercury at its bottom. This is shown in 



PHYSrCAL SCIENCE. 33 

the action of water pumps, wherein the 
water is raised, although the pressure of 
the atmosphere is cut off by the covering of 
the well. 

5 th. When a curreMt of any kind of mat- 
ter is passing^ let the life of adjacent bodies 
of matter^ animate or inanimate^ flow from 
them to swell this current. This new law 
of nature, or physical law, we have said, 
had escaped the notice of scientists ; but 
it will be found of vast importance in ex- 
plaining many natural phenomena that, 
without it, are either inexplicable, or that 
have been entirely misconstrued. When 
the Abbee Nollet passed a current of elec- 
tricity through a regiment of 1,500 men, it 
was supposed the impression made on each 
man was a state of action, or proceeded from 
an active condition, of his muscles. This, 
however, was an erroneous inference. The 
specific life— the nerve-fluid — was with- 
drawn to flow along with the passing cur- 
rent of electricity, and the muscles of the 
men were tlirown into their state of contrac- 



34 AMERICAN SCIJENCE. 

tioUj which, we shall afterwards see, was a 
state or condition the opposite to that of their 
action. This misconstruing ofa natural phe- 
nomenon has led to numerous errors in 
physiology and in other branches of science. 
TheLawoftheLife'Current(L. 5) is utilized 
in the use of lucifer matches. The rough 
surface on which the match is rapidly 
moved is the life-current into which the 
life of the paste flows, and its latent con- 
stituents, light and heat, are left free to 
combine and form flame. 

6th. Let ponderaUe fluids or liquids^ as 
ivater, ^c, tend to move towards the spher- 
ical outline of the earthy or to the surface of 
oceans or lahes, tohich, lohen calm, consti- 
tute in part this outline, and is, in fact, 
the true ivafer-level This tendency of the 
movements of such fluids, we have before 
said, has been misapprehended by scien- 
tists, who have erroneously referred it to 
the influence of the Law of Gravitation 
(L. 2.) The pressure of liquids in every 
direction, when restrained in their natural 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE, 35 

tendency, or when closely confined, is thus 
explained. 

This physical law is utilized in the em- 
ployment of what is erroneously called 
water-poiver^ the power being connected 
with the operation of the laiv here stated, 
and not at all with the ivater. In the use 
of this power or force, in mills and factories, 
it is only necessary to provide a sufficient 
quantity of water in a dam, with an out- 
let through which the water can move 
towards the water level. We can then 
command the force of this law, and can 
modify this force at will. 

Tth. Let the molecules of elastic bodies 
tend to preserve their natural relative posi- 
tion. Is it not strange that mankind, in 
their early savage, uncivilized condition^ 
as w^ell as in their present more refined 
and more civilized state, should have select- 
ed the force from this physical law for the 
accomplishment of their purposes of secur- 
ing game and of measuring time, as in 



36 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

the use of the bow, and of the elastic steel 
spring in watches and clocks? 

8th. Let the molecules of crystalline bod- 
ies, ivhen uniting^ he arranged in regular 
specific forms or crystals. Perhaps tlie 
most remarkable instance of crystallization^ 
is to be found in the formation of ice. Here 
this process may be observed at leisure, and 
the molecules of water assuming a solid 
form are arranged in obedience to this law 
in a strictly regular order in the formation 
of crystals, each crystal having its own 
proper angle preserved among its elements 
or constituents. An immense force is con- 
nected with the operation of this law. 

9th. Let the constituents o/ inanimate 
forms of matter he combined in certain 
definite proportions. In all chemical com- 
binations this definite proportion among 
the constituents is, by virtue of this phys- 
ical law, observed. When an acid and an 
alkali are combined, there is a fixed quan- 
tity of both acid and alkali in each salt 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 37 

produced. The law is utilized by varying 
the proportions, and by thus having at 
command the chemicals we desire either 
ibr medicinal or mechanical use. 

10th. Let material bodies or their mole- 
cities unite to form distinct masses or larger 
bodies of matter. This law, we have &aid, 
is the great means employed in nature to 
counteract or annul the force or forces of 
other physical laws. Wlien a ponderable 
body, of whatever size or weight, falls to 
the ground or to the earth's surface, its 
motion is arrested, and the force, no mat- 
ter from whence derived, is annulled, be- 
cause the force from the Law of Cohesion, 
(L. 10,) acting on the earth or its mole- 
cules, is superior to any force we can com- 
mand. A cannon ball, moved by the force 
frem the Law of Diffusion, (L. 3,) brought 
into operation by the explosion of gun- 
powder, is gradually annulled by that from 
the Law of Cohesion acting on the air, on 
the water, or on the timbers of a ship, but 
is at once arrested in its motion if fired at 



38 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

a bank of earth. This law is utilized by 
mankind in the same way as in nature, in 
modifying or in annulling the force from 
other physical laws. 

11th. Let the specific life of animants 
unite ivith the materials of their ingesta to 
form the fluids and tissues of living or ani- 
mate bodies. This process of vital com- 
bination is usually termed assimilation. 
The final result of digestion or assimilation 
is, the formation or production of the spe- 
cific life^ that is applied to so many useful 
purposes in the living economy — to the 
purposes of sensation, of motion and of nu- 
trition. 

12th. Let the living muscular fiber ^ ivhen 
innervated, be actively elongated and erected, 
and, ivhen enervated, let it be contracted. 
This theory of muscular action serves to 
explain satisfactorily all the phenomena 
in nature in which this action is involved, 
while the received theory fails to furnish a 
rational explanation in a very large pro- 
portion of such phenomena. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 39 

The uses to which this law of nature is 
applied are too familiar and too numerous 
to require here an extended notice. 

13th. Let certain forms of matter adhere 
to each other, I need not dwell on the 
uses to which this physical Law of Adhe- 
sion (L. 13) is applied in mechanics. 

14th. In the higher orders of both the ani- 
mal and vegetable kingdoms^ let a ijroper 
union of the tioo sexes be attended loith the 
formation of a new being ; and in the lower 
orders of these kingdoms^ let the production 
of a ganglion or nerve-center befoUoiued by 
a like result. 

The phenomena that should be referred 
to this physical law of animate Greneration 
have been an immense stumbling block to 
physiologists and theologians, and have 
given rise to many heated disputes ; but 
this physical law, enacted by an all-wise 
and omnipotent Law-giver^ should serve 
to settle all such disputes. 

With the use of this law of nature Farm- 
ers, more than any other class of the com- 



40 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

munity, promote the enjoyment or happi- 
ness of their fellow-creatures. 

OF THE SO-CALLED MECHANICAL POWERS. 

The Mechanical Powers can only exhibit 
physical force or power when connected 
with the operation of one or more of the 
physical laws. Most commonly this power 
is derived from the physical law of muscu- 
lar action (L. 12) and the lawof G-ravitation, 
(L. 2.) These are, in fact, devoid of power, 
hut are employed as the means, or appli- 
ances, by which power is guided or directed 
to the parts of a machine where its exertion 
is wanted. Thus, in a Water-mill or fac- 
tory, power or force is conveyed to the mill- 
stones or spindles by means of wheels and 
cogs, or" by pulleys, &c. — the power in this 
instance being derived from the physical 
law of the Water-level, (L. 6.) In the 
steam engine the power is transmitted from 
the physical law of Diifusion, (L. 3,) by the 
same means, to the wheels of the Locomo- 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 41 

live or to the shaft of the Steaml3oat, &c., 
in order to produce the required motion. 
These appliances, we repeat^ serve to di- 
rect and increase force ; but in themselves 
possess no force or power whatever. 

OF MOTION. 

Motion is the result of an impulse or of 
an impression of force from some physical 
law or laws, and may be regarded in the 
light of a scientific principle arrived at by 
reasoning ; but has nothing of the charac- 
ter of, and therefore cannot be regarded as, 
a law of 7iature, as some have erroneously 
thought. 

MOTION OF THE TIDES AND OF CONSTANT 
STREAMS OP FRESH WATER. 

The motion of water in tides is derived 
from the physical law of the Water-level, 
(L. 6,) which motion ceases not as the law 
is constantly in operation. Like the mo- 
tion of the pendulum, when the force that 



42 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

carries the water in one direction, as to- 
wards the surface of oceans, is exhausted, 
the force that cariies the water in another 
direction, towards bays and rivers, comes 
into play, and the motion of the water is 
thus continued. The motion of tlie Hde, 
(which is nothing more than a [)oi-tion of 
water under the influence of the law of tlie 
water-level, (L. G,) having reached the sur- 
face of oceans^ tlie water liere is raised 
above the Water-level, and is tlien returned 
towards this level by means of the same 
law which has its force increased by the 
influenceof the law of Gravitation, (L. 2.) 
In this way the force being constantly kept 
up, the tides continue, and will continue, 
so long as these laws of nature are in opera- 
tion. Thus we have a perpetual motion 
that has been in operation from the begin- 
ning of the world, and will continue to the 
end of time. The same is true of all con- 
stant streams of fresh water as of the river 
St. Lawrence, the flow of which is sustain- 
ed by the force from the law of the Water- 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 43 

level ^ (L. 6,) assisted by the force from the 
law of gravitation, (L. 2.) 

OF WAVE-MOTION. 

This subject is deserving of the more at- 
tention^ since it has served to give rise to 
a prominent theory in European Science 
that professes to account for or to explain 
a vast number of phenomena connected 
with the imponderables. I allude to the 
famous Undulaiory Theory^ that has become 
very popular and is now generally received 
as true among European Scientists. We 
gain a knowledge of Wave-motion best by 
adverting to what we have said of the 
movements of the pendulum, and by sub- 
stituting the horizontal line of the Water- 
level for the perpendicular line of gravity. 
What is a wave, of water, for instance ? A 
wave is a portion of water that has received 
an impetus or impulse from the application 
of force from some physical law, as from the 
law of Gravitation, (L. 2,) by the falling of 
a pebble on a calm surface of water. This 



44 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

impetus forces a portion of water above the 
line of the Water-level, and the force being 
thus exhausted, that of this law is again 
employed to carry the water back to this 
level ; and we thus have an oscillation of 
this portion of water, like the oscillation 
of the pendulum^ first in one direction and 
then in another, the former perpendicular, 
and the latter horizontal. The top of a 
wave is called its crest, and its bottom its 
trough. The distance between the crest 
and trough of a wave or its size is in a 
direct ratio with the degree of force applied 
to this portion of water. When a rock or 
large stone is dropped into calm water the 
waves are larger than when a small peb- 
ble is dropped. The impulse on the wave 
when conveyed to the sensitive extremities 
of the auditory nerves is followed by the 
determination of specific life through these 
nerves and the subsequent formation of the 
ideas of sound that are conveyed to the 
mind. Now, the air and all the imponder- 
ables beiijg conceived to be fluids, as well 



PHYSICAL ^CIEiSrCE. 45 

as water, it is reasonable to conclude that 
they may all have waves ; but to infer from 
this that the imponderables are not forms 
of matter^ but only modes of motion^ is irra- 
tional, unscientific and unphilosophical — is 
simply a perversion of reason. We miglit 
with equal propriety regard water and all 
metals that are fused as modes of motion. 
That waves are the result of an impetus, 
or of an application of force, we may - be 
convinced by attending to the fact that 
waves are produced by the application of 
force from several of the physical laws as, 
from a row-boat, from the law of Muscular 
Action, (L. 12;) from a sail-boat, from the 
law of Suction, (L. 4 ;) from a steamboat, 
from the law of Diffusion, (L. 3,) &c., as 
well as from the law of Gravitation, as we 
have seen. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RECAPITULATION OF THE PRECEDING SCIENTIFIC 
VIEWS, RELATING MORE ESPECIALLY TO PHYS- 
ICAL SCIENCE, THE SCIENCE OF INANIMATE 
MATTER. 

We started out with the genei'al princi- 
ple or proposition, the truth of wliich it is 
presumed will not be questioned, namely, 
that the grand aim in all human knowl- 
edge, religious and secular, should be, a 
correct view of the economy of nature, or 
a just account and satisfactory explanation 
of the phenomena presented in this econo- 
my. Such a view liad been attempted in 
the various systems of religion adopted in 
the early history of the human race. The 
system of i-eligion now called Grecian My- 
thology was, however, so absurd, or so 
at variance with the dictates of common- 
sense, that certain Grreeks, calling them- 
selves Philosophers, rejected this system 
(4G)' 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 47 

ofreligiooand refused credence to its tenets. 
Accoi'dingly, they initiated an entirely new 
system, calling it Philosophy , which after- 
wards became the basisof European Science. 
From this period of Grecian history to the 
l)i'esent time thei'e has been, as might be 
supposed, an antagonism between Science 
and Religion, notwithstanding the striking 
analogy between the two systems that we 
liave just pointed out. The cause of this 
antagonism is easily explained. Religion 
Avas dogmatic and overbearing in its teach- 
ings, as it professed to receive its dogmas 
from the direct inspiration of Grod ; while 
Science was solely dependent on human 
reason for its principles, and derided the 
pretensions of religion. The latter, how- 
ever, was backed by the masses of humani- 
ty, and it became extremely hazardous to 
call in question a religious tenet, as was 
shown in the cases of Socrates, Bruno, and 
Gallileo. Bishop Butler, in his Analogy, 
very profoundly i-emarks, ''and as it is 
owned tlie whole sclieine of Scripture is not 



48 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

yet understood, so if it ever comes to be 
understood before the restitution of all things, 
and without miraculous interpositions, it 
must be in the same way as natural knowl- 
edge is come at — by the continuance of 
learning and of liberty, and by particular 
persons attending to, comparing and i)ur- 
suing intimations scattered up and down 
it, which are overlooked and disregarded 
by the generality of the world/' To say 
that the whole sclieme of Scripture is not 
yet understood is the same as to say that 
tliis scheme fails to furnish satisfactory 
explanations of natural i)lienomena, and 
consequently fails to answer the purposes 
of liumanity in attaining a knowledge of 
the economy of nature. A remarkable 
failure in this respect will be pointed out 
as we proceed. 

Science is certainly the more liberal mode 
of investigating natuie since Religion tram- 
mels and restrains its votaries by its ])re- 
tension to direct ins[)iration. I have conse- 
quently adopted the title n\' Ainericm? 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 49 

Science^ which, when understood, w^ill be 
found to furnish a system of religion as 
well as of science tliat will be of vast bene- 
fit to mankind. 

[Jnfortunately for the interests of truth 
or of pure science, the Greek Philosophers 
first gave their attention to physical^cience, 
or to the science of matter, and were led to 
adopt the principles of materialism. They 
accordingly looked to the forms of matter 
for the power and intelligence exhibited 
in conducting the course of nature, or that 
were presented in the economy of nature. 
Had they commenced with metaphysical 
science, and studied carefully the mental 
endowments w^th their proper functions, 
they miglit have discovered that human 
reason, when not properly conducted, or 
when tin's process was not fully completed, 
was an unsafe and unreliable guide to 
truth. Ill every instance of reasoning tJie 
<^roivning act should he the exercise of an 
enlightened conscience or cultivated common- 
sense. 
4 



50 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

With this part of the process omitted, 
there is no protection against the errors 
that may be embraced by the luiman mind, 
such as everywhere prevail in European 
Science. It was from a disregard of the 
mental endowment of conscience, that is 
possessed by every sane mind, that many 
errors have been introduced into every sys- 
tem of religion. It is not surprising that 
the Greek Philosophers, with their unfledg- 
ed reason, should have fallen into innumer- 
able errors, that have exerted a baleful 
influence in science down to the present 
time. It was under such an influence from 
the error of the occult^ active properties of 
matter y that Sir Isaac Newton was led to 
adopt the false principle of universal gravi- 
tation that really has no existence in the 
economy of nature. The Greek Philoso- 
phers taught this false principle, and Sir 
Isaac, having learned it at college, could 
not divest his mind of this e2:reo:ious fal- 
lacy, so derived. Had he looked to God 
and His laws, he might have discovered 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 51 

the primary and proximate or secondary 
causes of this motion of ponderable bi)dies. 
We have said on another occasion Sir 
Isaac reminds us of a raw sailor going to 
the mast-head and fixing his attention on 
the objects on deck ; and when I see his 
mind reeling and his reason failing in 
climbing his dizzy height I feel like calling 
out with the boatswain, '' look aloft ! you 
land lubber ! '' When the student of nature 
has learned and can fully realize the truth, 
that the course of nature is conducted by 
an all- wise and omnipotent Being, he has 
accomplished the most difficult part of the 
lesson he is learning. It was the opinion 
of the atheist Comt^ that this conclusion 
was the result of the exercise of infantile 
reason alone ; but we shall show as v/e 
proceed that this is the natural result of 
all reasoning, adult as well as infantile. 
This conclusion cannot be avoided by any 
sane mind that reasons from the natural 
or physical phenomena that are everywhere 
presented to its observation. 



52 AMERICAN SCCENCE. 

If, then, science, true, pure science, has 
for its grand aim in common with religion 
a true theory or full understanding of the 
phenomena presented in the economy of 
nature, the analogy between these subjects 
of thought is established in this branch of 
our subject, Physical Science. 



CHAPTER V. 

OF METAPHYSICS, OR THE SCIENCE OF MIND. 

The mind has not a palpable substratum 
of matter, like the body, of which it can 
take cognizance ; but we only gain a clear 
conception of the mind through conscious- 
ness, that is, by giving attention to the 
mental endowments, or faculties'^ as they 
are called, and to their several functions or 
offices. In the new system of American 
Science it is held that every living creature, 
whether of the animal or vegetable king- 
dom, is possessed of a mind, soul, or spirit- 
ual existence, in which is its personal identi- 
ty and to which are addressed the laws of 
nature designed to govern its conduct in 
this life — the instincts ; every species of be- 



• *In using this term it is necessary to exclude from it 
all notion of power or force. These faculties are pos- 
sessed of no power whatever, but are mere capabilities 
of function. 

(53) 



54 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

ing has a mind peculiar to this species, with 
more or fewer endowments, and with these 
endowments more or less developed. Per- 
haps the human mind is more highly en- 
dowed than that of any known creature, 
and we shall take this as our type. 

The faculties of the human mind may be 
divided into three classes, namely, into the 
Hygienic, the Intellectual, and the Emo- 
tional faculties, as they are designed to gov- 
ern or preside over the bodily functions and 
those of the Intellectual and Emotional 
faculties. These mental faculties have all 
been carelessly investigated and erroneously 
represented in our books on Physiology and 
on Mental Philosophy. We will endeavor 
to give here a more correct account of them. 

In animated nature there are two princi- 
pal objects that are deserving of especial 
notice, viz : the mind or soul, and the subtle 
fluids termed the specific life, or nerve-fluid, 
which the mind makes use of in accom- 
plishing its purposes. Thus the mind is 
brought into relation with the material 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 55 

world, or with the material objects around 
us, by means of this specific life, which is 
determined by the mind to objects from 
which impressions are received, and the 
ideas of such objects are formed and con- 
veyed to the mind. In this way only do 
we perceive or become aware of the exist- 
ence of such objects. In this connection 
it should not be overlooked that the im- 
pression Gomesjirst from the object perceived, 
and then the mind determines its specific 
life to the object, before an idea of such 
object can be formed and be conveyed to 
the mind. The material objects of which 
we can have ideas, have a subtle life ever 
passing from them in a state of nature, that 
makes the impression spoken of. This is 
the theory of perception adopted in Ameri- 
can Science. Before entering upon the con- 
sideration of the mental faculties in detail 
we would call attention to an important 
provision in nature that seems not to have 
been fairly understood by scientists. I al- 
lude to that part or the economy of nature 



56 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

commonly treated of under the liead of As- 
soda tion of Ideas, 

All the pleasure, enjoyment, or happi- 
ness of living creatures proceed from a 
due observance of the Instincts — the laws of 
nature designed to govern their conduct in 
this life. Now there are, in the environ- 
ment or surroundings of such creatures, 
objects appointed to suggest to them obedi- 
ence to, or the observance of, their Instincts 
— the impressions from each of those objects, 
suggesting the observance of a particular 
instinct or hxw ; impressions from articles 
of food, suggesting the taking of food ; from 
the air, the taking in of air, or respiration, 
&c., &c. Impressions so derived, we pro- 
pose to call Suggestive Impressions^ that 
may with the greatest benefit to science be 
substituted for the term Association o^ Ideas, 
These impressions may be attended to or 
not as seemeth proper to an enlightened 
conscience or sound common-sense, that is, 
the governing faculty in every sane mind. 
Religion, leaving out its pretensions to a 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 57 

direct inspiration from God, takes a very 
partial view of the economy of nature, being 
mainly concerned with the human soul and 
Its future destiny. The Suggestive Im- 
pressions of which we have been speaking 
appear to an unsophisticated mind one of 
the wisest provisions in nature for the pro- 
motion of the happiness of living creatures ; 
as they serve to suggest to, or remind crea- 
tures of, and prompt them to, an observance 
of the Instincts— this being the only real 
source of all happiness ; but in religion, 
and especially in the Christian dispensa- 
tion, these impressions are regarded as the 
snares and temptations of the world, and 
are turned over bodily to the devil, as the 
means whereby he ensnares human souls 
and turns them into hell. 

The human mental faculties being di- 
vided into the three classes — Hygienic, In- 
tellectual and Emotional — and the first 
class presiding over or governing the bodily 
functions, the due performance of which 
constitutes Hygiene or Health, these func- 



58 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

tions are attempted to be explained in our 
books on Physiology. Since, however, the 
discovery of the true law of Muscular Ac- 
tion,* that differs essentially and in toto 
from the old views on this subject, it is 
found necessary to change the explanations 
or theories of these bodily functions. The 
erroneous principle of ^ro/)i^?6'io?i, on wliich 
these functions were supposed to occur, 
must be substituted by that of suction. In 
the functions of digestion, respiration, 
circulation of the blood, of the secretions, ex- 



* The great difficulty in accepting our view of Mus- 
cular action, that seems to occur most readily to* the 
unreflecting, arises from a mi.sapprehension of, and a 
consequent false inference from, this view. Can it be 
conceived, it is asked, that the limbs could be moved by 
means of a soft yielding substance, as the muscle in the 
living body? Now, the motion of the limbs, in every 
instance, is the result of the operation, or of the exer- 
cise, of tw6 sets of muscles, the Flexors and Extensors, 
and is never produced by any one set acting alone. 
Take, for instance, the extension or straightening of the 
fingers. In this act, both the flexor and the extensor mus- 
cles of the hand and fore-arm are employed, and not one 
set alone, at a time; so that this extension is the result 
of the employment of both Flexors and Extensors. But 
here is the point in dispute. According to my view, in 
extending or straightening out the fingers the set of mus- 
cles that are in action, or that are actively elongated and 
erected, are the so-called Flexors; while the opposing 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 59 

cretioDS^ (fee, &c., the contents of the tubes 
concerned, are moved on the principle of 
suction, and not on that of propulsion — the 
action of the involuntary muscles about 
these tubes tending to expand and to in- 
duce a vacuum in, rather than to compress 
and to obliterate, their cavities. 

The division of the Muscular System into 
two classes, the Voluntary and Involuntary 
Muscles, is right and proper ; but the true 
basis or ground of this classification is 
not at all understood. The function or 
office of the mental faculty, the Will, has 



set, the so-called Extensors, are in their state of contrac- 
tion, wherein the nerve-fluid is withdrawn from their 
fibers, by means of an action in their corresponding 
nerve centers, and whicli is not the state of action of 
these Extensor Muscles. In extending the fingers the 
so-called Flexors are i?i action, and inflexing the fingers 
upon the palm, the so-called Extensors are in action, 
and contribute to this movement of the fingers by their 
active elongation and erection, that is, hy their action. 
Again, the really active state of a muscle, it^ active 
elongation and erection, which is its true state of action, 
seems nottohavebeen sufficiently attended to by Phys- 
iologists. A muscle, in this state, becomes as rigid and 
unyielding or as inflexible as a bar of steel, as in the 
muscles of the Index, when this finger is kept firmly 
extended. Many other instances of the inflexible natura 
of muscles, ivhen in action, or when erected, will readily 
occur to every one. 



60 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

been entirely misapprehended by scientists 
generally, and especially by Physiologists. 
The Will, in itself, exerts no power nor in- 
fluence whatever over any of the muscles. 
The sole office of this faculty is to form de- 
signs or plans ; and such plans, stored in 
the mind, serve as sttggesfive impressions 
to induce the mind to exercise the class of 
voluntary muscles, in order to carry out 
or to accomplish this plan. 1 will to walk 
across the room ; that is, I form, by means 
of my will, the plan to do this ; and the 
mind, if the act is approved of by the com- 
mon-sense, calls into exercise the voluntary 
muscles of locomotion to accomplish this 
plan. In the same way I might proceed 
to my farm to-morrow on horseback, by 
steam-boat, or by railroad, simply by the 
mind preparing the conditions necessary 
to carry out the purposes I may have in 
view. 

Again, I might form the plan or con- 
ceive the design of jumping over the moon, 
but the mind, possessing no means of ac- 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 61 

complisliing this feat, gives no attention 
towards its accomplisliment. Here, then, 
the much-mooted question of free-will, is 
included, as lawyers say, in a nut-shell. 
The will is left free to form any plan how- 
ever preposterous or absurd; while every 
sane mind is possessed of the governing 
faculty of conscience or common-sense that 
enables it to determine whether or not it 
shall give its attention to the accomplish- 
ment of the design so presented to it by 
means of the will. 

This is the way Shakspeare puts it: 



' Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all, 
And the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er 
With the pale cast of thought; and enterprises 
Of great pith and moment with this regard, 
Their currents turn away and lose 
The very name of Action." 



OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

The intellectual faculties are either sim- 
ple or compounded. Among the former 
are embraced tlie Observation oi* Percep- 
tion, Imagination, Judgment, Conscience 



62 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

or Common-Sense^ Memory^ Will, and the 
Faculty of Language ; and the latter class 
embraces the Reason, and the Invention 
or Inventive Faculty. Of the Observa- 
tion we have treated cursorily when pre- 
senting our theory of Perception. It may 
be added here, however, that light makes 
the suggestive impression that induces the 
mind to call into exercise its faculty of see- 
ing, sound of hearing, odors of smelling, 
savors of tasting, and so on, each sense 
finding in its environment the form of mat- 
ter suited or appointed to bring it into ex- 
ercise. Where there is no light the sense 
of vision is in abeyance ; where there is 
no sound the sense of hearing is not exer- 
cised, and so on. The proper suggestive 
impression must be present or the sense 
cannot be brought into action. 

The imagination is usually exercised in 
finding new, strange, and pleasing combin- 
ations of thought, and much happiness is 
derived from its proper exercise ; but its 
greatest utility is exhibited in the process 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 63 

of reasoning, of which we shall presently 
speak. 

The judgment is also usefully employed 
in the reasoning process, but is commonly 
used in comparing objects of thought, or 
such as are found in the world around us. 
The matliematicians employ this mental 
faculty in comparing objects, and in estab- 
lishing their equations — this branch of 
Science being simply, the Science of Equa- 
tions, 

The conscience or common-sense is the 
ruling mental faculty that is largely de- 
veloped in the human mind. This is the 
spark of divinity that leads us to a knowl- 
edge of good and evil. This faculty, when 
properly cultivated, enables us to determine 
at once as to the truth or error of knowl- 
edge of every kind, as to what is virtuous 
or vicious in morals, what is right or wrong 
in conduct, and to what is just or unjust in 
our relations with others. This is, in short, 
the balance-wheel which, in mental machin- 



64 AMERICAN SCIENOE. 

ery keeps every other part ot the machinery 
at its proper work. But for the counteract- 
ing beneficent influence of this faculty the 
imagination would carry off the mind into 
all sorts of follies and excesses, and society, 
or the intercourse among beings, would be- 
come unbearable. Is it not passing strange 
that a mental faculty of so high a value, 
and of so much importance in the living 
economy, should have been overlooked and 
entirely neglected in European Science? 
This simple fact accounts for the innumer- 
able errors and follies contained in this 
system. 

The memory is that faculty by means of 
wliich impressions are recorded in the mind^ 
so that they may be recalled from thence as 
occasions serve. It is not, however, attended 
to, that no other impressions can be so stored 
up and recalled, but the ideas formed as we 
have seen, and that are thus brought into 
relation with the mind. The more plainly 
stamped on tlie mind the idea, the more 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 65 

readily is it recalled. The recollection of 
recently-impressed ideas fails in advanced 
age, because siicli ideas are, at that time of 
life, but faintly impressed on the mind ; and 
all our ideas that are not strongly im- 
pressed, ^'Like Adam's recollection of his 
fall," or that are not frequently repeated, 
are soon forgotten, and pass out of the 
mind. 

The will is the faculty that, in the con- 
fused notions entertained on this subject in 
European Science, is supposed to exert a 
direct power or influence over the voluntary 
muscles, that causes their action. This is 
all wrong. The will, being an endowment 
of mind by the Creator, can exert no power 
whatever, but its peculiar office or func- 
tion is, to form pLms or designs that 
serve to suggest the calling into exercise 
the voluntary muscles. The views on this 
subject embraced in American Science were 
so fully set forth, when speaking of the ac- 
tion of the voluntary and involuntary 
muscles, ([). 60,) that it is deemed un- 



66 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

necessary here to repeat or to add to 
them. 

OF HUMAN REASON. 

We have said, every living being, whether 
of the vegetable or animal kingdom, is pos- 
sessed of a mind, in which is its personal 
dentity, and to which are addressed its 
instincts; that each species of being has a 
mind peculiar to this species, with endow- 
ments or faculties more or fewer in number, 
and with these faculties more or less devel- 
oped. Now, the Reason is so plainly pos- 
sessed by the human mind that it is thought 
to be the characteristic of the human race, 
who are called rational creatures, while 
brutes are supposed to possess instinct, 
blind instinct^ as it is called, as a substitute 
for reason. This is an error in European 
Science; for there certainly are both rea- 
son and instinct operating on every mind, 
brute or human; the difference between 
the two arising from the firreater or less 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 67 

developement of these faculties in the two 
classes of beings. The human mind is so 
constituted by the Creator that it has to 
rely much on its reason, while the brute 
mind, in which the reason is less devel- 
oped, is more dependent on its instincts in 
its ordinary conduct. To regard the in- 
stincts, which are fche laws of God designed 
to regulate the conduct of creatures in this 
stage of existence, as being hlind^ is an ut- 
ter perversion of language^ and an extreme 
folly on the part of scientists^ since it is 
the guidance of the conduct of His crea- 
tures by an all-wise Creator. 

Eeason is a compound mental faculty or 
endowment, its function being composed 
of that of each of the four following sim- 
ple faculties performed in the order here 
enumerated, namely: the Observation, 
Imagination,* Judgment, and Conscience or 



* Is it not astonishing, that mankind should allow a 
subordinate faculty, the imagination, to gain the as- 
cendancy over all the other mental faculties ? Not only 
is thio so ; but the imagination is suffered to repress and 
dwarf, as it were, the conscience or common-sense, that 



68 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

Common-fSense. We have spoken of the 
Suggestive Impressions from the objects 
)ntainecl in the environment of living; be- 



co 



t5 



ings. Any such object that arrests or serves 
to arouse attention may suggest to the 
mind the performance of the function of 

is appointed by Divine Wisdom llin ruling faculty of the 
human mind. This faculty, quaintly called in Scripture 
"the knowledge of good and evil," has been graciously 
bestowed on humanity by the Creator, in order that the 
truth may be discerned, pursued and embraced, and that 
error may be detected and shunnerj. Instead, however, 
of carrying out this wise design of the Divine Mind, 
Mankind have given heed to extravagant flights of the 
imagination, a faculty of which Bishop Duller, in his 
analogy, has remarked : " We are accustomed, from our 
youth up, to indulge that forward, delusive faculty, ever 
obtruding beyond its sphere ; of some assistance, indeed, 
to apprehension ; but the author of all error." The 
exercise of the imagination, which Lord Dacon took 
every occasion to decry, is a most essential part of the 
reasoning process ; but then, its suggestions must 
always be subject to the ruling faculty of conscience or 
common-sense, the exercise of which is the crowning 
act of all correct reasoning. A neglect of this latter 
important principle of science has 'been the fruitful 
source of all error in human knowledge, religious and 
secular. In religious knowledge especially, the ima- 
gination is constantly exercised, and its suggestions, if 
they come from one having authority, are held as reli- 
gious tenets, to which the mind is ever after subject, and 
the truth of which it is not permitted to call in question. 
In this way humanity is enslaved and chained down, as 
it were, by its religious tenets, or rather by the imagin- 
ation ; from such dictates of which, it can never be freed 
while the present condition of things remains, or until 
we can aspire to a greater freedom of thought, or to a 
more perfect liberty than is now enjoyed. 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 69 

Keason. The fall of an apple, the arrange- 
ments of the valves of the veins, the dif- 
ferent states of the arteries near the seat of 
local inflamntation, and of those remote from 
tliis seat in the same subject, have suggested 
to several minds notable instances of rea- 
soning ; and, indeed, the mind is constantly 
prompted to exercise this faculty by objects 
with which it is surrounded. Any object 
that arouses the attention or that is at- 
tended with a determination to it of the 
specific life, is suflficient for this purpose- 
The two principal aims in all scientific rea- 
soning are, to acquire correct scientific 
principles, and to discover the true laws oi 
nature. With this knowledge acquired, the 
mind is greatly facilitated in accomplish- 
ing the purpose for which it was created — 
a proper appreciation«of 'Hhe Work which 
Grod worketh'' in the creation. 

Instances of the exercise of reason. The 
falling of an apple from the limb on which 
it grew, it is said, first suggested to Sir 
Isaac Newton his reasoning on the sub- 



70 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

ject of Gravitation. The first step or 
stage in this exercise of reason was the em- 
ployment of his observation when his atten- 
tion was directed to the falling apple ; the 
second step was occupied in calling upon 
his imagination to find a general proposi- 
tion, or a scientific principle, that would 
account for the falling of the apple towards 
the ground, or surface of the earth, rather 
than in any other direction. In casting 
about for such proposition, having learned 
at college the notion of the occult properties 
of matter, attraction and repulsion, first 
taught by one of the Greek philosophers, 
he very naturally adopted this view, and 
came to the conclusion that the apple 
moved in this direction because of this at- 
traction that was inherent in both — the 
apple and the earth to which it fell The 
third step in this process of reasoning con- 
sisted in the calling into exercise the judg- 
ment in comparing all the instances of 
bodies moving towards the earth, and in 
judging of their fitness to the proposition 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 7 I 

found by the imagination. Consequently 
he threw ponderable bodies into the air^ 
and explained their motion towards the 
earth on the same principle. He here, 
however, had occasion to amend the proposi- 
tion so as to make ponderable bf)dies move 
towards the center of the earth. General- 
izing the facts/ he made all the ponderable 
bodies about the surface of the earth, in- 
cluding the moon, to be attracted towards 
its center. Then, changing the center of 
attraction, from the earth to the sun, he 
made all the planets of our solar system 
to be attracted towards this luminary ; and 
again changing the center of attraction to 
the center of the universe, he made all 
bodies to move towards this grand center, 
and thus established his theory of Universal 
G-ravitation. This was indeed a vast gen- 
eralization, calculated to attract the atten- 
tion and to gain the admiration of Scien- 
tists generally. Unfortunately for New- 
ton's I'cputation it lacked a most essential 
part of a true principle of Science — truth. 



72 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

There was not a word of truth in this gen- 
eralization. The occult properties of mat- 
ter have no existence in the economy of 
nature^ and nowhere else, than in the pru- 
rient imagination of the philosopher who 
first suggested them and of such as are weak 
enough blindly to adopt this suggestion. 
A moment's thought or reflection, or an 
appeal to common-sense, must serve to con- 
vince any one of the folly of such a tlieory. 
Neither the earth nor the apple had any- 
thing to do with the motion of the latter, 
but the proximate or secondary cause of 
tliis motion was, the law of nature, the 
physical law of gravitation, (L. 2,) that 
was enacted by the Creator at the begin- 
ning of the world. 

Sir Isaac Newton, like the Greek philoso- 
phers, stopped short in his reasoning before 
the process was completed, and consequent- 
ly fell short of the truth in his conclusion. 
Had he appealed to the faculty of conscience 
or common-sense implanted in his mind for 
tlie very purpose of leading him to the 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 73 

truth 5 he would have reasoned legitimately, 
and might have detected the extreme folly 
of the conclusion at which he had arrived. 
Harvey, observing the arrangement of the 
valves of the veins, as represented by Fabri- 
ciiis Abaqaapendente, discovered the 
course of the blood in its circulation ; but in 
giving a detailed account of this circulation 
he w^as entirely at fault. The blood is not 
propelled by the heart. The heart is a suc- 
tion organ, and is not an organ oi propulsion ^ 
as Harvey supposed. The contents of the 
heart and blood vessels, and, indeed of all 
the hollow organs in the living economy, 
are moved on the principle of suction^ and 
not on that of propulsion. 

The very striking difference observed in 
the condition of the throbbing arteries in 
a finger affected with whitlow, and of the 
radial artery on the opposite side of the 
same patient, led to the discovery of the 
true law of muscular action (L. 12) as of- 
fered in American Science,'^ so widely dif- 

*See monogram of Tlio Law of Muscular Action. 



74 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

ferent from that previously entertained by 
physiologists. The action of a muscle is 
attended with the active elongation of its 
fibers, and not by their co7itraction, as 
heretofore falsely imagined. The active 
elongation of the fibers arranged about the 
walls of the tubes or hollow organs, must 
tend to create a vacuum within these or- 
gans, and thus to bring into operation the 
physical law of suction, (L. 4,) to tlie opera- 
tion of which in moving the contents of 
the hollow organs of the living body we 
alluded above. 

The Invention, or the Inventive Faculty 
is another compound mental faculty, as its 
exercise implies a previous exercise of rea- 
son in arriving at principles and the laws 
of nature, without which, means could not 
be adapted to the attainment of ends — the 
proper function or office of this mental 
faculty. The retriever mentioned by Dar- 
win, who, finding he could not manage two 
crippled ducks at the same time, crushed 
the neck of one and left it, while he carried 



^ MENTAL SCIENCE. 75 

the other duck to the huntsman, and then 
returned for the one he had left behind, 
must have had some crude indistinct notions 
of the principles of physiology gathered 
from experience. He knew, from his im- 
perfect reasoning, that if the crippled duck 
were left alone with the posession and con- 
trol of its nerve fluid, or specific life, that 
it would employ its muscles in making its 
escape^ and he broke the connection be- 
tween mind and muscles; he killed the 
duck by crushing the neck, that he might 
be more certain of finding the body there 
on his return. We beg leave to add here 
the Faculty of Language. 

THE EMOTIONAL FACULTIES. 

This class of mental faculties is more dif- 
ficult to treat than either of the others, 
because these have never been clearly de- 
fined, but have been mixed up and con- 
founded with other afi'ections of the mind 
with which they have nothing to do. The 
wants, desires, appetites, and propensities 



76 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

that arise simply from impressions made 
by means of the objects with which the mind 
is surrounded, are confounded with the 
emotional faculties, and so are the passions 
that are the emotions intensified by means 
of an excited imagination. 

None of these are part and parcel of the 
mind, as are the emotional faculties, but 
mere conditions superinduced by adventi- 
tious or accidental circumstances. Religion 
is said to impress itself on the emotional 
side of the mind, and if we trace the Chris- 
tian dispensation in its early history, and 
observe how prominent a position parental 
and filial affection, that are emotions, are 
made to occupy, Ave may be disposed to 
adopt this view; yet natural religion, 
which is the true basis of all religion, is 
clearly the result of the exercise of reason, 
or of the Intellectual Faculties. 

There was in the early history of Chris- 
tianity much immorality, ignorance, and 
superstition that found a genial soil in the 
minds of the enslaved, ignorant, and super- 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 77 

stitious Jews, that we. in our country, 
where slavery has been recently abolished, 
can fully realize ; but I fear we are not suffi- 
ciently advanced in learning and in liberty 
to allow of a free expression of the results of 
reasoning. In all civilized communities 
where the Christian religion is adopted it 
is, as yet, hazardous to exercise the reason, 
particularly so, on points of doctrine al- 
ready decided in religion. Who dares now 
to suggest, or even to intimate, that this 
system of religion may have been the result 
of the exercise of reason ; that it contains er- 
rors that clearly indicate its human origin ; 
or that a more perfect system of morality, 
and a more effectual means of promoting 
the happiness of living creatures might 
have been attained simply by attending to 
the dictates of an enlightened conscience? 
The Emotions, the Emotional Faculties, or 
the instincts prompting to their exercise, 
may be obeyed or indulged in, without sin 
or blame, if the mind is careful to listen 
to the dictates of conscience, and thus to 



78 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

exclude the influence of passion. This 
truth is asserted in Scripture where it is 
said ^^Be angry, and sin not.'' The sin 
consists in disregarding conscience, and in 
yeihling up the mind to unbridled passion. 
The Emotional Faculties were .implanted 
in minds, and the instincts requiring their 
exercise were ordained no douht for the 
wisest purposes, and consequently there 
can be no harm in properly obeying these 
instincts or laws, and in thus promoting 
the happiness or enjoyment of living 
creatures. 

Love, or the disposition to interchange 
life ; hate, or an indisposition to do this ; 
anger, fear, pity &c. , &c. , and the affections, 
parental, filial and others, constitute the 
emotions ; while the sense of the beautiful 
and of the sublime are conditions of the 
mind closely allied to passion, wherein a 
proper control of the mind is yielded up^ 
and the reins are thrown ud to the imairin- 
ation. The pleasure thence arising pro- 
ceeds only from the indulgence in the 



MENTAL SCIENCE. *79 

exercise of the latter faculty.* The same 
sensation is excited in the works of the 
painter, the sculptor, and the poet — all 
that is necessary is, first to fire or arouse 
the imagination, and the work is done ; the 
effect aimed at is accomplished. 

In closing this hasty and very inadequate 
account of the mind, let me here repeat 
the following scientific principles of Ameri- 
can Science : 

1st. Every living being, whether of the 
animal or vegetable kingdom, is possessed 
of a mind, soul, or spiritual existence, in 
which is its personal identity, and to which 
are addressed its instincts, or the laws of 
nature designed to guide its conduct in 
this life. 

2d. Every species of being has endow- 
ments or mental faculties peculiar to such 
species. 

3d. Under the guidance of its instincts, 
each species builds up out of the materials 
in its environment its own material body. 

4th. The portions of a living being most 



80 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

worthy of cdnsideration are its mind, and 
its specific life with which the mind oper- 
ates in accomplishing its purposes. 

5th. The principal portions to be con- 
sidered in the living material body are the 
nervous system, the muscular system^ and 
the nutritory system. The first for the 
transmission of the specific life or nerve- 
fluid through the living economy ; the sec- 
ond for the production of motion ; and the 
third for the maintenance and repair of the 
economy. 

6th. The nervous system is also subdi- 
vided into the sensory, motory and nutri- 
tory nerves, as these minister to sensation, 
motion, or nutrition. 

7th. The muscular system is also subdi- 
vided into the voluntary and involuntary 
muscles, as these are influenced or unin- 
fluenced by means of the will, the plans 
formed by the will being the suggestive im- 
pressions for the action of tlie voluntary 
muscles, and impressions from tlie contents 
of the liollow organs, about the walls of 



MENTAL SCIENCE. 81 

which this class of muscles are placed, being 
suggestive impressions for the action of the 
involuntary muscles, 

8th. The laws of nature, by means of 
which the course of nature is conducted as 
we may observe, are divided into two classes 
or codes, the physical laivs and the instincts^ 
accordingly as they are designed to govern 
or to influence inanimate bodies or minds. 

9th. All the power or physical force in 
nature is connected with the operations of 
the physical laws, to secure their execution 
or enforcement ; while all the pleasure, 
enjoyment, or happiness experienced by liv- 
ing creatures is connected with the opera- 
tions of the instincts, and is derived from 
obedience to these laws as an inducement 
to, or as a reward for, their execution or 
observance, 

10th. The human mind, with its com- 
pound faculties of reason and invention 
largely developed, may, if properly trained, 
be made to reach astonishing results, as we 
daily observe in the ordinary walks of life. 



82 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

God has made nian superior to every 
other species of living creatures. With 
liis compound faculties of reason and inven- 
tion more largely developed, lie gains the 
ascendency over them, and makes all crea- 
tures, animal or vetetahle, subservient to 
his purposes. He procures pelts and fnrs 
for his comfort from the wiklest animals, 
and ordinary clothing from such as arc 
more accessible. He acquires the power, 
force, or strength that he needs i'rom the 
scientific principles established by reason- 
ing, and more directly from animals that 
can exert more force than he is capable of 
in his own person, as from a horse, ox, 
&c., and then by the exercise of the faculties 
with which he is endowed he is enabled 
to attain all other objects that may minis- 
ter to his comfort. 

Such of the above objects as are not 
reached by a cultivated reason, are yet ar- 
rived at by experience — which is abnormal 
or uncultivated reason, such as is employed 
by the rudest portion of humanity. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RESULTS OF RECENT EXERCISES OF REASON IN 
BOTH PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL, OR MEN- 
TAL SCIENCE. 

I beg the credit may be awarded me of 
having suggested general propositions and 
j)rinciples that are more rational than those 
embraced in the received system of Euro- 
pean Science. I do not dogmatize. I mere- 
ly suggest for the convenience of such as 
are disposed to examine them critically. 
My propositions are numbered as follows : 

1. Every effort at reasoning by the hu- 
man mind, whether religious or secular, 
has been directed towards acquiring a cor- 
rect view, a true theory, of the Economy of 
Nature, of the Constitution and Course of 
Nature. Every system of religion that has 
been adopted by the human intellect has 
for its grand aim such a theory, and all 

seem to have failed in attaining this aim. 

(83) 



84 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

The system of European Science furnishes 
also a melancholy instance of such failure. 
Those who have attempted to explain nat- 
ural phenomena by means of this system 
soon become aware of this. The principles 
of this system of science are utterly false 
and untenable. 

2. The Economy of Nature, or the Con- 
stitution and Course of Nature, is best re- 
garded as a form or scheme of government 
having God for its Founder or Author, its 
Law-giver, and Supreme Governor. Under 
this government of God are two separate 
and distinct classes of subjects, viz: inani- 
mate, insensate, and inert forms or bodies 
of matter, and animate bodies, or such as 
are possessed of or influenced by a mind. 

3. To govern these classes of subjects 
two separate classes or codes of laws were 
ordained at the beginning of the world, 
namely, the physical laws and the instincts. 
For the enforcement of these different laws, 
very different provisions are made in na- 
ture. For the execution of the physical 



RESULTS. 85 

laws power, force, or physical force is 
appointed, and is connected or associated 
with the operation of this code of laws; 
so that this power or force is to he found 
nowhere else in nature but in this con- 
nection ; and for the enforcement or ex- 
ecution of the other code, the instincts — 
pleasure, enjoyment, or happiness is ap- 
j)ointed, and is connected or associated 
with the operation of this code of laws, so 
that pleasure, enjoyment, or happiness is 
only experienced in connection with the 
due observance of these laws. 

4. The laws ordained by the Creator at 
the beginning of the Avorld to conduct the 
course of Nature, embracing the physical 
laws and the instincts, are the only true 
Laws of Nature, What are regarded as such 
in European Science are merely scientific 
principles established by human reason. 
The latter are creations of the human in- 
tellect ; while the former are the appoint- 
ments of the Divine mind. 

5. In the new system of American Science 



86 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

God is regarded as the great first cause, 
and His laws, referred to above, are consid- 
ered the secondary or proximate causes in 
all natural phenomena. In this way the 
absurd doctrine of Materialism, wherein 
the inherent, occult properties of inert mat- 
ter are regarded as secondary causes, is re- 
jected and is entirely gotten rid of. The 
mind is thus at liberty to refer to God, to 
whom is justly due, the power and intelli- 
gence exhibited in conducting the course 
of Nature. This is a fundamental princi- 
ple of American Science, which it becomes 
the student of Nature fully to realize or 
understand. For the power and intelli- 
gence constantly observable in Nature we 
must look to the laws of God and not to 
the inert forms of matter that can possess 
no power and no intelligence. 

6. In an animate or living body, or such 
as is in connection with or under the in- 
fluence of a mind, there are two principal 
objects that are deserving of special atten 
tion, namely, 1st, the mind with its sev- 



RESULTS. 87 

eral faculties^ in which is its personal 
identity and to which are addressed its in- 
stincts; and 2d, the subtle fluid, life, which 
the mind makes use of in accomplishing 
its various purposes througli its material 
body. The mind, having no material sub- 
stratum like the body, is onl}' recognized by 
attending to the exercise of its several fac- 
ulties, that is, through consciousness^ which 
is the proper term for this mode of atten- 
tion. The life is a subtle fluid, that is in 
relation with both matter and mind, and that 
serves to bring the mind in relation with 
the material world. This life in living 
beings is called specific life^ that is, the life 
of the species, because it differs somewhat 
in its nature in every species of being. It 
is not identically the same fluid in any two 
species nor indeed in any two individuals 
of the same species. If we possessed senses 
sufficiently discriminating, as in some of 
the lower orders of animals, wx might de- 
termine the species and individuals by the 
scent or specific life emanating from them. 



88 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

Y. We have, in this treatise, made a list 
of the mental faculties, and have given 
some slight cursory account of their exer- 
cises, or of the mode in which the proper 
function of each is performed. It may not, 
however, be amiss to dwell further on the 
most important of these mental functions — 
that of Eeason. The results of reasoning 
seem to have been but little considered 
by scientists, for they have confounded 
with each other such as are totally differ- 
ent in their nature and character. The 
laws of Nature, as said above, are constant- 
ly confounded with scientific principles, 
when the two are totally different in their 
nature the one from the other. From the 
earliest period of the history of Science a 
very defective and imperfect mode of reason- 
ing has been adopted by scientists, and 
consequently many gross errors or palpa- 
ble fallacies have found a place in the re- 
ceived system of European Science. Some 
of these errors we have taken occasion to 
point out. In every legitimate instance of 



RESULTS. 89 

reasoning the crowning act or the final 
appeal should have reference to the dictates 
of an enlightened conscience, or good sound 
common-sense. When this latter part of 
the process is omitted or neglected, the 
reasoning is abortive and the conclusions 
arrived at are unreliable and of little value. 
The mind is then at the mercy of an un- 
restrained imagination, like a ship at sea 
at the mercy of the winds without a pilot 
and without a hand at the helm. Is it not 
strange that this mental faculty of con- 
science or common-sense, which it must be 
conl'essed is the most important and valu- 
able of these faculties, should have been 
overlooked and entirely ignored by scien- 
tists? It is also remarkable that this natu- 
ral Criterion of truth, implanted in every 
sane mind, should have been substituted 
by the deceptive and unreliable Criterion 
of experiment. Experiments may be made 
to support any theory, however absurd, as 
we shall presently see ; but the dictates of 
an enlightened conscience are the same in 



)0 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

3very well-ordered mind, and are not liable 
to change. With this Criterion, instead 
of the hap-hazard, indefinite, and crude no- 
tion of direct inspiration commonly enter- 
tained, both religion and Science become a 
perpetual inspiration, being in accordance 
with the dictates of a faculty implanted in 
the mind by the Creator. 

8. No onCjit seems to us, who has given 
his attention to the plain truths of Ameri- 
can Science, can be satisfied with having 
the occult inherent properties of matter in- 
troduced in explaining physical phenom- 
ena. These properties are uncalled for and 
unnecessary, as all such phenomena are 
fully and satisfactorily explained without 
their use. The secondary causes at work 
in these phenomena are much more ration- 
ally referred to the laws of God than to 
^uch properties of inert matter. The reason- 

ng of Sir Isaac Newton on the subject of 
G-ravitation was faulty in this respect. The 
axperiments he made in support of his 

theory were inconclusive ; as they equally 



RESULTS. 91 

served to support the very different theory 
suggested in American Science. Ponder- 
able bodies about the earth's surface tend 
to move towards the center of the earth 
because of the Law of Nature, the Law of 
Gravitation (L. 2) ordained by the Creator 
at the beginning of the World. This law 
is the secondary or proximate cause of this 
tendency in ponderable bodies. 

9. Imponderable bodies when mixed with 
ponderable bodies do not occupy the higher 
position because of the pressure of the lat- 
ter; but because of a law of their own — 
the law of diffusion, that serves to impel 
them towards the zenith and merge them 
into the bodies through which they pass. 
Thus the smoke from a chimney tends to 
move towards the zenith or outer circumfer- 
ence of the atmosphere, but is soon merged 
in the air through which it passes. The 
pressure downwards of more weighty mat- 
ter is an incidental circumstance, and is 
not an active cause in the phenomenon. 
As ponderable bodies are constantly giving 



i 



92 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

off and receiving imponderables, so the 
imponderables are constantly being merged 
into ponderable bodies, and become con- 
stituents of the latter. 

10. The whole notion of atmospheric 
pressure^ that is so much dwelt upon and 
employed in European Science in explain- 
ing certain physical phenomena, is rejected 
and expunged from American Science. The 
Law of Suction, the operation of which is 
dependent on a vacuum formed, is made 
to take the place of this absurd notion, 
since in every instance of so-called atmos- 
pheric pressure there is found a vacuum 
that accounts for the operation of the Law 
of Suction, (L. 4,) the law requiring 
that all adjacent bodies of matter should 
move to fill a vacuum. The force of this 
law, acting at tlie outer circumference of 
the atmosphere, would counteract or annul 
the force of the Law of Gravitation acting 
on the air. The weigiit of the atmosphere 
(supposed to be 15 lbs. to the square inch 
of surface) is removed from bodies im- 



RESULTS. 93 

mersed, by the counteracting force of tlK3 
Law of Suction operating at its outer cir- 
cumference. So that there is, in fact, no 
atmospheric pressure in nature, as common- 
sense dictates. 

11. From every form or body of matter 
in the universe there is ever passing a sub- 
tle fluid, in accordance with the First Law 
of Nature, (L. 1,) and this is necessary in 
order that such forms or bodies should be 
recognized by living beings ; for without 
this subtle fluid the ideas of such bodies 
could not be formed and presented to the 
minds of living beings. This view of the 
economy of nature is new to science ; but 
careful reflection shows that it is abso- 
lutely necessary in explaining natural 
phenomena. On what other ground could 
it be imagined that we become aw^are of 
the objects around us, or that inferior or- 
ders of animals are enabled to follow their 
prey by the scent ? This subtle fluid should 
be understood by the term life^ as this 
would serve to divest the w^ord of much of 



94 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

its mystery, and to give to the term a defi- 
nite meaning. 

12. When a current of Electricity is passed 
through the living human frame or body, 
tlie specific life or nerve fluid may be ob- 
served to leave the body and to pass off 
along with this current of electricity ; and 
the muscles and other parts of the body, 
that were distended and erected by means 
of this nerve fluid, become suddenly con- 
tracted and impart the sensation called 
a shock. In certain delicate chemicals 
that have their constituents but weakly 
combined, as nitrate of silver, &c., a cur- 
rent of life passing serves to decompose the 
chemicals and leave the impression of some 
of its components, as tlie black oxide of 
silver. This is what occurs in daguerreo- 
types or photographs. Ifa current otalmost 
any kind of matter is made to pass near a 
Lucifer match, as in its friction against 
any rough surface, the paste is decomposed 
and the light and heat of its constituents 
are combined into flame. From these and 



RESULTS. 95 

other like facts we have traced oat a new- 
law of nature, a physical law, that we have 
called the law of the life current. This 
physical law, that is new to science, serves 
to explain satisfactorily a large number of 
naturalphenomena that, without its use, 
are either inexplicable or are misconstrued. 
13. It is very remarkable that the flow 
of liquids, as of water, should have been so 
carelessly and insufficiently investigated 
by scientists. The motion of water is not 
governed by the Law of Grravitation, as 
they have supposed, but by a law of its own, 
the Law of the Water-level^ (L. 6 J that 
lirects this motion, not to the center of the 
3arth, but to its spherical outline, or sur- 
kce, that is largely occupied by the surface 
)f oceans, and that is the true water-level. 
The natural flow of water is best under- 
stood by adverting to the motion of the pend- 
ulum of a clock. When, by the influence 
of the Law of the Water-level, the water 
it the surface of oceans is forced above the 
ine of the water-level, it is made to return 



96 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

to this line by the same influence ; and 
thus we have the flux and reflux of the 
tides — towards the oceans the ebb, and 
from the oceans the flood tide. The same 
is true of the water of streams above tide 
water. This all assists in forming tides, 
by })ressing the water at the surface of 
oceans above the line of the water-level, 
and by thus sustaining or supporting the 
force of the law of the water-level. For the 
force, then, with which the water is moved 
in mills, iactories, &c., we must look to 
this physical law of the water-level, (L. 
6,) and not to the Law of Gravitation. 
(L. 2.) 

14. Is it not more rational to refer tlie 
phenomena of Elasticity to a physical law 
than to an imaginary inherent property of 
elastic bodies ? 

15. The above question, mutatis mutan- 
dis^ applies equally to crystalline bodies. 

16. The Law of Chemical Combination 
(L. 9) requires that in these unions the con- 
stituents should be in certain definite pro- 



RESULTS. 97 

portions to each other in every such com- 
bination. 

17. The Physical Law of Cohesion (L. 
10) is remarkable for the force that may 
be associated with its operation, a force 
that is superior to and that may overcome 
and annul the force of all other physical 
laws. The force of a physical law being 
directly proportional to the quantity of 
matter influenced by the law at the time, 
(L. 14,) the force of this law, when acting 
on the body of the earth, is enormous, and 
cannot be overcome by any means at the 
disposal of a finite mind. 

18. The Law of Vital Combination 
(L. 10) is unknown to European Science. 
The specific life or nerve-fluid is scarcely 
recognized in this system, and conse- 
quently it was found impossible to imitate 
the vital products that constituted the liv- 
ing body. Neither chemist nor physicist 
could form a muscle, bone, or ligament^ 
because they could not realize the nerve- 
fluid or its analogue that was an essential 



98 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

constituent of these forms. They possessed 
no means of securing and of controlling 
this fluid in its combinations, and it was 
therefore ignored and neglected. 

19. The Physical Law of Muscular ac- 
tion (L. 12) that we have so clearly illus- 
trated furnishes another instance of the 
falsity and unreliableness of the criterion 
of experiment in establishing a truth in 
science. Consistently with other parts in 
the European system, the occult property 
of contractility was attributed to muscles, 
and this property was thought to be 
evinced when the muscle is irritated, 
which was done by lacerating the fibers. 
^^The flesh will creep when the pincers 
tear,'' but it was not considered that this 
creeping of the flesh indicated both the 
action and contraction of the fibers. When 
this irritation acted most on the nerve- 
center the nerve-fluid was withdrawn from 
the fibers and they were contracted, and 
when the irritation acted most on the point 
irritated, the fluid was determined to the 



RESULTS. 99 

fibers of the part, and they became actively 
elongated, and were in a state of action, or 
in their active state. Both the elongation 
and contraction of fibers were before the 
eyes of experimentalists ; but they chose to 
notice only the latter state of the fibers, 
and to ignore the former state or condition, 
and thus it was erroneously supposed 
that the state of contraction of its fibers 
was the active state of a muscle. 

20. The physical Law of Adhesion (L. 
13) ordained by the Creator furnishes a 
sufficient explanation of the phenomena 
connected wdth this subject. 

21. The inception of a living being has 
always been a stumbling-block to Scien- 
tists ; but assuredly a law or an expression 
of the Will of the Supreme Being of un- 
limited wisdom and power furnishes a 
sufficient cause and explanation of the phe- 
nomenon. The Physical Law of Animate 
Greneration, (L. 14,) as represented in Ame- 
rican Science, answers this purpose. 

22. The term Instinct, is employed by 



100 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

Scientists and others with a very indefinite 
and indeterminate sense or meaning. It 
is commonly regarded as that part of brutes 
that corresponds with human reason ; but 
neither the one nor the other of these 
terms, when so regarded, have attached to 
it any clear or distinct notion or idea. 
Eeason is not regarded as a mental faculty 
or as part and parcel of the human mind, 
for brutes are not allowed to possess a mind, 
and these terms thus employed are with- 
out any meaning whatever. The fact is, 
that no two words in the English vocabu- 
lary have meanings more different from 
each other. Reason is a compound mental 
faculty, an endowment of mind; and, in a 
more or less perfect form or development, 
is common to all minds ; while an instinct 
is a law of nature ordained by the Author 
of Nature, that is designed to regulate the 
conduct of living beings and to prompt 
their specific acts. Every species of living 
beings is possessed of a mind with more or 
fewer endowments, and with these more or 



RESULTS. 101 

less perfect, and to this mind are addressed 
its instincts. Every living being is under 
the guidance of instincts peculiar to its 
species, and under this guidance forms its 
own material body and performs all other 
acts peculiar to the species. A neglect of 
this instruction from their instincts, is at- 
tended with the formation of monstrosities, 
or lusus naturce^ and many other abnormal 
conditions. Reason being more largely de- 
veloped in the human mind than in that of 
brutes, the acts of the latter are dictated 
mostly by Instincts, while many acts of 
mankind are prompted by an imperfect 
mode of reasoning. God has appointed a 
perfect mode, and has endowed all minds 
with this, but it is perverted by humanity, 
and mankind have preferred this perverted 
mode of reasoning to that appointed by 
Divine Wisdom. Seasoning, without ref- 
erence to the dictates of conscience or com- 
mon-sense, is an abortive effort, that must 
end in error and disappointment. 

23. But besides the laws of nature— the 



102 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

instincts^ under the operation of which all 
living beings are placed in this state of 
existence — there are in the environment 
of such beings certain forms or bodies, ap- 
pointed by Providence to suggest observ- 
ance of these instincts or obedience to these 
laws of nature. Impressions from these 
bodies are called in American Science Sug- 
gestive Impressions. This view of the econ- 
omy of nature is made in this system of 
Science to take the place of that commonly 
understood by the term Association of Ideas. 
The Suggestive Impressions are separated 
into Internal and External, as they arise 
from the living material body or from 
External nature. 

24. There is no force whatever connected 
with the instincts; but as '' His -service'' 
among living beings '' is perfect freedom'' 
for the enforcement or execution of this 
code of lawSj the system of rewards and 
punishments is introduced into the economy 
of nature. So that for every proper observ- 
ance of these laws, the sensation of pleasure, 



RESULTS. 103 

enjoyment, or of temporal happiness is ap- 
pointed as the reward ; and for every neglect 
or non-observance of such laws the sensa- 
tion of unhappiness, of suffering, or of pain 
is inflicted as a punishment. Is it not pass- 
ing strange that an arrangement or pro- 
vision in nature so palpable as this, and 
so constantly pressing itself upon the at- 
tention, should have been unnoticed and 
ignored by Scientists? 

25. The human mind, as the type of 
mind, is divisible into three classes of fac- 
ulties, namely, into the Hygienic faculties, 
presiding over the bodily functions and the 
due exercise of which constitutes health; 
the Intellectual faculties, of which we have 
above given a list, and the Emotional fac- 
ulties, that embrace the Affections. The 
Instincts enjoin the exercise of each of these 
faculties, and this is the nearest we can 
come at a list of the instincts or the closest 
estimate we can make of their number and 
character. 

Tlie analogy, or sameness of rule or prin- 



104 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

ciple, in true Science and true Religion is 
strikingly remarkable in the following re- 
spects : 

1st. In both Science and Religion God is 
recognized as the great First Cause in all 
the phenomena presented in the economy 
of nature. He hath made all things sim- 
ply by the utterance of His will. ^^For 
His pleasure all things are and were cre- 
ated/' 

2d. In Science and in Religion, the laws 
of nature, that are confessedly the laws of 
God, are regarded as the only secondary or 
proximate causes in the same phenomena. 
Materialism, or, as it is sometimes called. 
Material Science, is thus rejected and spurn- 
ed, as being utterly false and unfounded. 

3d. Inspiration, which, in Religion, is 
assumed to be the will of God directly com- 
municated to mankind through certain fa- 
vored individuals, as inspired writers — this 
communication being imparted in totidem 
verbis, et in totidem Uteris — is, in science, 
regarded as tlie same will, communicated 



RESULTS. 105 

to all creatures indirectly ; that is by means 
of a mental faculty called conscience or com- 
mon-sense, with which the mind of every 
living being is endowed. This monitor, 
in science, is assumed to teach the truth as 
it is in the Divine mind ; to inform its pos- 
sessor as to what is good. or evil, riglit or 
wrong, virtuous or vicious, just or unjust, 
and further teaches what is proper or im- 
proper in conduct. When the dictates of 
this mental faculty are properly attended 
to, the mind acts in conformity to the will 
of God, and consequently answers the pur- 
pose for which it was created. Instead of 
the inspiration in religion, that was im- 
parted to few of the most gifted in the early 
history of mankind, there is a perpetual 
inspiration in science, continued down to 
the present time, through any that are at 
the pains to properly exercise their reason 
in the mode appointed by Divine wi.sdom. 
4th. Religion, that is principally con- 
cerned with the human soul, teaches that 
the soul perishes not at death, but is im- 



106 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

mortal ; and after deatli that it passes into 
a ihture state of existence, eitlier of cease- 
less happiness or of endless suffering, ac- 
cording to its conduct in this state of nature, 
the creed, or the belief in the Christian 
dispensation, going far towards determin- 
ing into which of these two states the soul 
is to enter. Science teaches that the soul 
or mind is common to every living creature, 
aiid also that the soul is indestructible or 
immortal ; but the scientist, knowing that 
he has no ground to proceed upon after 
death, other than his imagination suggests, 
rests in the conviction that the future dis- 
posal of the soul is beyond his ken. Al- 
though from analogy he may conclude tliat 
this future state is one of misery or of hap- 
piness, he knows that tliis is not a certain 
mode of reasoning, and knowing that his 
^;oul is at the disposal of an allwise, omnip- 
otent, and most benevolent, Being, he is 
constrained to exclaim, in view of deatli, 
^•Not my wdll, but thine be done, Lord !'' 
5th. True religion, after all, is but a 



RESULTS. 107 

theory of the economy of nature, or of the 
government of Grod over the world that He 
hath created, suggested by the imagination 
and approved by the conscience, and science 
is the same theory, suggested and approved 
by the same faculties, the hitter of which is 
here called common- sense. There is, how- 
ever, this essential difference between reli- 
gion and science, namely, that the former, 
however abounding in ignorance and super- 
stition, has ever been sanctioned by the 
authority that could be commanded by the 
peoples or nations by whom it was adopted ; 
wliile the latter has been made to stand or 
lall as the results of the exercise of human 
reason in individuals might justify. The 
science we have, being false, has taken no 
permanent hold on the human intellect, and 
is therefore subject to change, as learning 
xnd liberty advance, and must eventually 
take its position in the lead of religion. The 
human mind has been, through all ages, 
chained down to religious tenets, and an 
order in society appointed to rivet these 



108 AMERICAN SCIENCE. 

chains J and to see that these rivets are kept 
in order. There are many faUacies in every 
system of religion heretofore proposed, and 
the scientist must either implicitly adopt 
these, however palpable, or be content to 
be regarded b}^ his fellow-men as being 
irreligious. 

This latter is about as wise a conclusion 
as that human reason, as lieretofore exer- 
cised, is, like the Pope, infallible; or that 
the principles of European Science, as that 
of gravitation , are unquestionably true. 



